être

[ɛtʁ]

/[ɛtʁ]/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“être” is uncommon German (frequency #73,168), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#73,168
frequency rank, German
4
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - sich in einem Zustand, einer Charakteristik befinden

Corpus desk

Index DE-etre · être · German

être · rank #73,168 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #73,168
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "Ê" thin
  • PHOTO-FINISH ätzenden

Nearest frequency peer: ätzenden (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Langschwanz-Ränge nahe „être“

Dünnes Band: Balken invertieren den Rang, seltenere Formen wirken kürzer

corpus weight

What this shows Langschwanz-Sicht: wo „être“ gegen ähnlich seltene deutsche Ränge sitzt.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for être
PropertyValue
Headwordêtre
LanguageGerman
Part of speechVerb
IPA[ɛtʁ]
Letters4
Frequency rank#73,168
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „être“ im Deutschen

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).êtrefällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „ätzenden“ (#73,167), „Öhringen“ (#73,169), „ächzt“ (#73,166). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

être is uncommon German at frequency #73,168, classed as averb, transcribed [ɛtʁ]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for être, suggesting the orthography follows predictable German patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct German form is être, spelled Ê-T-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    sich in einem Zustand, einer Charakteristik befinden
  2. 2
    an einem Ort sein

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how être appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Je suis petit et barbu.
  2. Est-il malade ?

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "être"?
"être" is spelled Ê-T-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is [ɛtʁ].
What does "être" mean?
As a verb, "être" means: sich in einem Zustand, einer Charakteristik befinden
How do you pronounce "être"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "être" is [ɛtʁ]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "être" come from?
"être" is a German word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "être", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Ybbs#73,137Afra#73,209Alen#73,211wirk#73,122

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list